The other day I was sitting on Columbia University’s lawn, basking in the last cool-ish day of summer, while scrolling through my twitter feed before class. Suddenly my eyes caught a tweet sent from a predominant Christian individual which read:
“Old Testament is summed up in the word Christ; New Testament is summed up in the word Jesus; The Bible = Jesus is THE Christ.”
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I visibly cringed at those words. Here a popular Christian pastor with an immense following was perpetuating a simplistic and historically essentialized notion that reeks of the callowness most associated with fundamentalism.
As is my custom, I opened my big mouth and replied,
“This doesn’t make any sense.”
What did I hope to accomplish? Nothing, really, other than satisfy my enneagram 8 need to challenge. At best, perhaps this Christian pastor would respond and we could engage in a fruitful dialogue. But unfortunately for me, one of his followers chimed in:
“Why? Christ=Messiah. OT promises & points to Him. NT names the Christ/Messiah=Jesus.”
At this point I had to fight my snarky side, resisting the urge to respond Willy Wonka style:
Instead, I responded with my usual warning, that essentialized statements such as these are not only dangerously simplistic but actually an offensive use of the Hebrew Bible. In response, this twitter follower and Christian pastor effectively “unleashed the kraken,” barraging me with tweets:
Luke 24:27 “& beginning w/Moses & all Prophets,He explained what was said in ALL Scriptures concerning Himself.”
“How foolish you are, & how slow of heart to believe ALL that the prophets have spoken!” Luke 24:25 Fits you too?
I think we’re at the point in our society where being “offended” makes you right. #Scary but at least everyone gets a trophy
Nothing saddens me more than this now typical exchange. For suggesting the statement was simplistic, I was marked a fool. For suggesting the statement was offensive, I became the evidence for society’s alleged decline. At this point I left the conversation, wishing quite deeply that these individuals would have been willing to listen to my plea…
Acknowledging the Hebrew Bible means something different to another religious tradition, does not negate your own.
Learning the diverse stories collected in the Bible’s texts, does not have to minimize the Bible’s significance for you.
Recognizing not everything in the biblical text = Jesus, does not discount Jesus.
As a scholar-in-training in a religion not my own, I am constantly aware of how my Christian tradition has often appropriated and oppressed other religious traditions. I am sensitive to the ways my tradition’s use of another’s sacred text has been a form of abuse. And further, I think we have nothing to fear by watching how our language offends.
The time for Christian colonialism, in America at least, is over. No longer can the Church stamp out the voices of others; it must co-exist in a globalized state. We cannot simply baptize the native, pass laws restricting foreigners, or even segregate our churches. While the privilege of the Christian colonist has come from the degradation of the colonized, the church must now share the corner with the mosque, synagogue, and wiccan coven. And by altering our speech to avoid unnecessary offense, we aren’t softening some theological position; rather, we are acknowledging and respecting the dignity of the human person.
I often reflect on the words of Joseph Campbell in Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor: “It may be a species of impudence to think that the way you understand God is the way God is. (60).” Perhaps by channeling this humility, Christians can avoid the arrogant “My way or the Highway” colonialist tool of oppression, and instead learn to listen to our neighbor.